as Joey, but when he was forced to leave the production on November 22, 2008, due to an injury, his understudy, Matthew Risch, took over the part. Risch had previously appeared on Broadway in featured roles in Chicago and Legally Blonde. Critical response Original and subsequent productions In 1940 New York Times review, Brooks Atkinson wrote If it is possible to make an entertaining musical comedy out of an odious story, Pal Joey is it. John O'Hara has written a joyless book about a sulky assignation. Under George Abbott's direction some of the best workmen on Broadway have fitted it out with smart embellishments. Pal Joey offers everything but a good time, whether Joey is a punk or a heel is something worth more careful thinking than time permits. Although Pal Joey is expertly done, can you draw sweet water from a foul well? When he reviewed the 1952 revival, Atkinson called the production "brilliant", writing: There is no sign of age in the brisk performance that Robert Alton has expertly staged; and the acting is sharp and original... Miss Segal presides over the sordid affairs of an astringent tale with humor, reserve, and charm. It would be hard to improve upon Harold Lang's performance as the heel. In reviewing the 1995 Encores! concert, Vincent Canby noted: Here was a show in which cynicism, sophistication, bogus sentimentality and high spirits were as much the content as the form of an otherwise traditional Broadway musical. The first production [1940] shocked a lot of critics and many theatergoers. There was no question about the quality of the Richard Rodgers score and Lorenz Hart lyrics. The disturbance was caused by John O'Hara's corrosive book: the sordid adventures of a Chicago nightclub singer and M.C. named Joey Evans. It wasn't until the 1952 revival that Joey was recognized as literature's latest darling, the antihero. In 1995, Pal Joey is a treasure. 2008 production The New York Times panned the 2008 production, describing it as "in mourning for its own lifelessness", having "no detectable pulse". Todd Haimes, the Artistic Director of the Roundabout Theatre, commented on the "new book by Richard Greenberg that, in my opinion, does a stunning job of enhancing O'Hara's original by more fully integrating the songs with the book and giving even more of a full life to each of his characters." The Times quoted Haimes as saying that he thought